[Footnote: Flour brought, in Confederate currency, $40 per barrel; calico, $30 per yard; coffee, $50 per pound; French gloves, $150 per pair; and black pepper, $300 per pound. Dried sage, raspberry, and other leaves were substituted for the costly tea. Woolen clothing was scarce and the army depended largely on captures of the ample Federal stores. "Pins were so rare that they were picked up with avidity in the streets." Paper was so expensive that matches could no longer be put in boxes. Sugar, butter, and white bread became luxuries even for the wealthy. Salt being a necessity, was economized to the last degree, old pork and fish barrels being soaked and the water evaporated so that not a grain of salt might be wasted. Women appeared in garments that were made of cloth carded, woven, spun, and dyed by their own hands. Large thorns were fitted with wax heads and made to serve as hair-pins. Shoes were manufactured with wooden soles to which the uppers were attached by means of small tacks. As a substitute for the expensive gas, the "Confederate candle" was used. This consisted of a long wick coated with wax and resin, and wound on a little wooden frame, at the top of which was nailed a bit of tin. The end of the wick being passed through a hole in the tin, was lighted and uncoiled as needed.] Led by the enormous profits of a successful voyage, foreign merchants were constantly seeking to run the gauntlet. Their swift steamers, making no smoke, long, narrow, low, and of a mud color, occasionally escaped the vigilance of the Federal squadron. During the war, it is said, over fifteen hundred blockade runners were taken or destroyed. With the capture of Fort Fisher, the last Confederate port of entry was sealed. [Illustration: THE ALABAMA]